The long-term outcome of children managed with extracorporeal life support: an institutional experience.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term functional status and quality of life of infants and children who have received extracorporeal life support (ECLS), and to determine how and when death occurred. DESIGN: Long-term, prospective follow-up study. SETTING: 16-bed paediatric intensive care unit in a university teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: All children who received ECLS in the period April 1988 to October 2000 in the paediatric ICU at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, VIC. METHODS: The records of all 224 children who had received ECLS were reviewed, and functional status and quality of life were assessed through interview with each child's parent or guardian for those who had surviv..